Incorrect ballots were mistakenly sent to Republican voters in Scranton ahead of the May 20th primary election.
On Saturday, Lackawanna County officials confirmed that 545 ballots from the 2024 primary election were mailed to Republican Scranton voters ahead of the May 20th primary election.
The mistake was blamed on a printing company error, according to county elections director Beth Hopkins. The ballots were printed by Election Systems & Software.
Hopkins said she learned of the mistake on Saturday morning when she received a call from a Republican voter. According to Hopkins, she immediately drove to her county office and confirmed the error. She is unsure why the mistake happened.
Hopkins issued guidance that voters receiving the 2024 ballots by mistake should destroy both the ballots and the envelopes that they arrived with.
The county will mail new, 2025 ballots to those Republican voters by Wednesday, Hopkins announced.
Hopkins said, “I was able to get in touch with the printer, and they’re working on correcting their error as we speak, and they’re shipping the corrected ballots to me first thing Monday morning. And all of those voters will get a new ballot in the mail with a letter explaining the error and what they need to do.”
Mail-in ballots must be received by the county by 8 p.m. on May 20th to be counted.
Officials explained the county held up mailing ballots for Scranton Republicans until a court case involving Bob Bolus was resolved. A judge recently ruled that Bolus was ineligible to stay on the Republican ballot for mayor after a challenge to his ballot status.
The county had it printed but received the wrong ones from the printer for the 545 Scranton Republican voters receiving mail-in ballots.
The mistake was not caught before the ballots were sent out to the Scranton Republican voters. “I’m just not quite sure why the printer selected an old file instead of the currently file. That I’m trying to get to the bottom of now,” Hopkins said.
County Republican Party Chairman Dan Naylor spoke with Hopkins about the error. He said, “I do believe it was an honest mistake. Certainly because, in part, only Scranton is the issue. And, I mean, you have an obvious – with the Bolus situation taking place – mistake that I think they’ll learn from, right?”
